Living in Fear

">the terrorist called stress. Living in constant fear or
"Which is more of a threat to your health: Al Qaeda orstress has negative psychological, physical, and
the Department of Homeland Security?" was theemotional consequence to one's health and ability to
provocative lead in question to a recent article entitledperform.
Living in Fear and Paying a High Cost in Heart Risk.I kept reflecting on how important it is for everyone,
The article states that the answer is not as clear cutbut critical for leaders, to learn how to manage and
as you might think. A study published in the Archives ofnavigate our emotions and stress. One tool I teach in
General Psychiatry, which tracked the health of amy resiliency programs is the Reaction Cycle (our
representative study of more than 2,700 Americansbody's way or reacting to a perceived threat), which
before 9/11, began monitoring people's fears ofteaches us how we can intervene at three critical
terrorism for several years post the attack and foundphases of the cycle: Preparation, Interpretation, and
that the most fearful people were found to be 3 to 5Escalation, to bring our thoughts, emotions and
times more likely to receive diagnoses of newphysiology back into equilibrium. I reflected on leaders
cardiovascular ailments.who rely on fear as part of their leadership style and
I recalled that during the period of this study thatthe consequences it has on performance and on the
Homeland Security devised a color coded scale tohealth of the people they lead, as well as on their own
alert us to the level of threat present in ourhealth.
environment. I'm sure you can recall the numerousAlan Deutschman in his book, Change or Die, points out
news conferences with the Attorney General and thethe misconceptions about change; if you give people
Director of Homeland Security, which warned us ofthe facts, create enough fear and then add force that
potential threats and caused us to take heed of ourchange happens. In fact the 3 F's are the saboteurs of
surroundings. Little did we know that these warnings,change. Joseph LeDoux says, "Emotions are a critical
which were meant to help us were in fact causing risksource of information for learning." Emotional
to the health of our hearts.Intelligence informs us that fear is a legitimate and
It was during this same time period with messages ofcritical emotion; without fear there probably wouldn't be
risk and threat filling my thoughts, I was sitting in ana human species. However, to remain in fear is
airport waiting for a flight, when a metallic voice from aunproductive for health and performance and to bring
loudspeaker broke into my reflections informing meabout constructive change.
that the level of threat was elevated to orange and toWe need fear to alert us to the dangers confronting
not leave my bags unattended! My amygdala, our 911us in the 21st. century and to serious threats to our
response center in the brain, prepared me to takewell-being and to our organizations. However, we need
flight, freeze or fight. I scanned all the faces in the gateto learn how to move out of fear and into hope and
area looking for foes and at the same time looked foroptimism if we are to create a sustained effort to deal
the nearest exit. It was scary, absurd and reality all atwith the new realities of the world. Leaders need to
the same time. Realizing that if I were to continue withuse their heads and hearts to navigate these new
my profession and life I would need to come to termsrealities and they need to engage the heads and
with this new reality and not allow fear to rule my life. Ifhearts of their employees to be successful. To use
I didn't, the findings of this study indicate that I couldfear and to fear, fear is to risk losing your business
have been risking my health and potentially die fromand your life.